Krazy Kripples
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"Krazy Kripples" is episode 702 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 26, 2003.
Plot
When Jimmy's comedy act is snubbed by the townspeople in favor of an inspirational talk by Christopher Reeve, Timmy and he form a club for genuine cripples, born that way, not wannabe posers like he says Christopher Reeve is. Timmy and Jimmy start their own club, dubbed "the Crips" unaware of the notorious, real life street gang that shares the same name. Eventually Timmy and Jimmy find out about the Crips, and under the belief that it is a group of disabled people like themselves, the boys want to join the gang. The Crips leader tells the boys to "pop some punk ass Bloods". The boys do not know what the term actually means, so they casually tell the police that they are going to pop some "punk ass Bloods." They find 13 Bloods at a gas station called "Ribs 'n' Gas". While walking across the street a trucker swerves to avoid hitting Jimmy and Timmy but winds up blowing up the whole gas station, killing all of the Bloods. Jimmy and Timmy only become aware of the actual nature of their new gang when a group of Bloods gang members commit a drive-by shooting on Jimmy's house. In order to prevent further reprisals, Jimmy decides to call a meeting at the local recreation center between the two gangs, and lock themselves in for the evening until they can sort out their differences. Expectedly, both gangs initially act hostile to one another, but Jimmy manages to convince them to sort out their differences and manages to bring the two gangs together, as they all then participate in various games and activities inside the recreation center as friends.
Meanwhile, Christopher Reeve campaigns for stem cell research for the handicapped. By cracking open fetuses and sucking out their juices, he soon regains mobility, and even super powers like the character he portrayed, Superman. He eventually takes on the role of a supervillain, and is opposed by his archnemesis, Gene Hackman (the actor who portrayed Lex Luthor, Superman's archnemesis, whom Reeve refers to as Hack Man). This ironic comedy causes one reporter to comment that "if irony were made of strawberries, we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now." Reeve continues to use stem cells even after he is healed and becomes addicted to power, and eventually puts together a Legion of Doom (see below) made up of villains from the comic and South Park universes. At the end Hackman manages to get a law passed to end Reeve's "fetus-sucking days," and traps Reeve in the Phantom Zone.
The episode ends with the four boys — Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny — having watched all the events, remarking that they were "glad they stayed out of this one."
References to popular culture
- This episode refers extensively to the late Christopher Reeve’s campaign for stem cell research.
- The roles of Reeve and Hackman are reversed from the earlier Superman films where Reeve played the eponymous hero and Hackman his indomitable arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Reeve’s acting later in the episode is reminiscent of the Penguin from Batman.
- The Crips and Bloods playing music in the center is a reference to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
- At the end of the episode, Christopher Reeve is trapped inside the Phantom Zone, a square that is floating in space. This is a reference to the fate of Jor-El's enemies General Zod, Ursa, and Non.
- Reeve’s line, “That name no longer has any meaning for me,” is a reference to Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
- This episode strangely shares some similarities with a 2001 Walker, Texas Ranger episode (“Division Street”) where Walker creates a friendship between two rival gangs by making them play basketball in a recreation center.
- The scene in which Timmy and Jimmy scare the City Wok owner resembles the opening scene from Menace II Society.
- The scene in which Jimmy and Timmy lock the Crips and Bloods in the recreation center may be a reference to the Gang Summit in Kansas City in 1993 organized by Carl Upchurch.
